Red Wings adapt without Lidstrom

It will be different tonight when the Predators forwards go into the Detroit Red Wings zone to try to score. There won’t be a certain erstwhile defensive player who is always in sound position, trying to prevent Nashville from getting to the net.

And that same player won’t man the point on the power play to fire low, hard and accurate shots on goal.

Former Detroit captain, and seven-time Norris Trophy winner, Nicklas Lidstrom retired last summer. Lidstrom was arguably the greatest defenseman of the last 20 years, and was a constant presence in the Detroit/Nashville rivalry, which will be renewed tonight at 7 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena.

The Red Wings tried to sign former Predator Ryan Suter last summer to replace Lidstrom. Instead, Suter ended up with the Minnesota Wild.

“When you lose probably the best defenseman of your time, how does it affect any team?” Predators coach Barry Trotz said. “It’s a big hole you don’t recover from, but they have people who are trying to fill in. He’s the best of the best, and that’s a big hole. That probably hurts your culture, that probably hurts a lot of things.”

Overall, the Wings have been pretty porous defensively this year, allowing 2.93 goals-per-game. It’s unclear whether Lidstrom, now 42 years old, would help with that number, but he certainly wouldn’t have hurt.

“He wasn’t a guy who you had to look over your shoulder to see if he was coming in to hit you, but his stick was amazing,” forward Colin Wilson said. “He defended unbelievable, I mean he was arguably one of the best defensemen to ever play.”

Lidstrom was also a savvy operator from the point, scoring 59 points or more for all but two seasons after the 2004-05 lockout.

“I didn’t think he had anything like a huge bomb from the point or anything like that, but he was always a smart shooter,” goaltender Pekka Rinne said. “He was using the screens to his advantage, so it always made it really dangerous.”